Thursday, February 6, 2014

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

It's a new year in a little bit, and some new things have to be done. It isn't really a lot of fun moderating comments, and doing this is no longer playtime, it instead makes me worry. Maybe a new name or place is in order. Anyway, the email will work if you want to keep up with me, and if I do something like this elsewhere - or there is meatspace drinking to be done - I will be happy to take advantage of your attention or supplies of available cash.

Thank you, people who brought me fun and advice and information and sometimes alcohol. You have no idea how helpful you were, or what silly fun it was making some of this nonsense.

Comments off, now and forever. All the best to you and Happy New Year.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Thursday, December 12, 2013

For of a truth [Abu al-Husn] had nothing left, after that which he had squandered, but a concubine, a slave-girl whom his father had bequeathed to him with the rest of his estate: and she had no equal in beauty and loveliness and brightness and liveliness and symmetric stature and perfect grace. She was past mistress in every manner of arts and accomplishments and endowed with many excellences, surpassing all the folk of her age and time. She was grown more notorious than a way-mark, for her seductive genius, and outdid the fair both in theory and practice, and she was noted for her swimming gait, flexile and delicate, albeit she was full five feet in height and by all the boons of fortune deckt and dight, with strait arched brows twain, as they were the crescent moon of Sha'abán, and eyes like gazelles' eyne; and nose like the edge of scymitar fine and cheeks like anemones of blood-red shine; and mouth like Solomon's seal and sign and teeth like necklaces of pearls in line; and navel holding an ounce of oil of benzoin and waist more slender than his body whom love hath wasted and whom concealment hath made sick with pine and hind parts heavier than two hills of sand; briefly she was a volume of charms [...] She captivated all who saw her, with the excellence of her beauty and the sweetness of her smile, and shot them down with the shafts she launched from her eyes; and withal she was eloquent of speech and excellently skilled in verse.

Having taught home-schooled girls in his classes over the past 30 years, Dr. Markos observes that they are head and shoulders above feminists in every way imaginable:

“They possess a razor-sharp wit with which they can cut pretentious people (especially males) down to size, but they rarely use this skill, and only when they are sorely provoked.”

They “have a firm knowledge of the Bible, but they (unlike my biblically-literate male students) don’t engage in forensic debates over minor theological points of controversy; they will, however, step in if the boys get too contentious or triumphalist.”

There’s more. Home-schooled girls “have wonderfully synthetic and creative minds that make connections across disciplines … they are gifted in the arts; almost all of them can sing and most play instruments and draw. … They have not bought in to the lies of our modern consumerist state: that is to say, they do not judge their value and worth on the basis of power, wealth, or job status.”

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Both jobs were low paying, difficult and generally unpleasant. There was never a time when I said, "Oh boy, I get to make Whoppers today," or "I can't wait to wake up a two month old baby and try to get decent pictures of him before he starts screaming his head off!" However, those were both starter jobs for people with minimal experience. The whole idea is supposed to be that you gain some basic skills and either move on or start working your way up. You're not supposed to try to support a family flipping burgers or stocking the shelves at Wal-Mart. You're also not supposed to make $15 an hour at a job where you work side by side with unreliable high school kids.

If you DID make $15 an hour would it be better or worse for you? Myself, I am thinking.